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Saturday, February 25, 2017

Taiwan had a long weekend - Monday, and Tuesday off (Tuesday it was Peace Day and most people had already made up Monday by having to work the previous Saturday so that people could enjoy the long weekend.) John went with two other guys down to southern Taiwan on kind of the last guys trip till the baby comes. Also one of our friends had to have knee surgery so this was the last trip that he would take till he had recovered from surgery - which I'm guessing is from 4 to 5 months from now. While the men were gone off exploring we were invited to a different strawberry patch to pick strawberries. We had fun but picked SO many strawberries that I almost cringed when I realized how much I had to spend. It was a rainy, cool day but we had fun picking our strawberries. They were HUGE strawberries too, so the kids had fun picking. After that, we went to a restaurant that sells everything that is cooked with strawberries. I thought it would have some waffles but nope it was traditional Chinese food. My kids just ate white rice while I tried some of the dishes that my table ordered. It was yummy -- but none of our dishes had strawberries in them. Enjoyed the company of people to chit chat with. It was basically our only adventure outside during the long weekend because the kids just wanted to play inside our house for the rest of the time.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

VEF changed their afternoon service to an evening service. We are hoping that the evening service will grow and be something that we see growth on but another reason was to see if John would be able to spend a little bit of time with us as a family in the afternoon before our small group and the second service. The second Sunday of us having the evening service DID NOT work for having family time. John had meetings after meeting and it was just miserable for all of us because he had just gotten back from Thailand the night before (while all of us were sleeping) and all we wanted to do was spend time with him.

This week was better. We had a quick meeting, then grabbed food and headed out to an old bridge that's been repaired and had a picnic by the water. It was a little crazy getting there but it was worth it. The kids got to run around climbing on rocks and using their imaginations. John and Little N went on a quick river trace. I just enjoyed coloring, taking pictures and listening to the little waterfall that was right in front of us while we ate. It was the perfect day and we were thankful for the time we spent together as a family. We also took a picture of Baby Olson at 32 weeks! 😀

Friday, February 17, 2017

We had a surprise date night tonight! One of our friend's sister is heading back home after a visit here in Taiwan. They wanted our kids to have a sleepover at their house before she left. We said okay and then realized that Little M had a pre-make up day for school on Saturday. M's school is close to where my friend lives so he volunteered to drop him off at school on the way to work.

The kids were so excited for their sleep over that they were ready to go before we had to leave. Because we needed to let them run off some steam before going over we went over to the school park and then them play on the equipment and then run around. Then we dropped them off for their sleepover. They had a blast - they got treats, watched movies, got nails done and played soccer. They were so happy after being at their house.

We enjoyed a surprise date night. Neither of us could really figure out what we wanted to do. Do we go watch a movie, go out to eat, watch a tv show or just walk around the mall. We cut out the movie because I was convinced that I would fall asleep at the theatre and that would be a waste of money. Then I made the choice of ramen and ice cream. Then we walked around the mall for a little bit before heading home and watching a tv show (which we fell asleep to). It was a nice enjoyable time.

The kids got to watch the movie Sing which they loved and are now singing lots of different songs from the movie.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

I've made it to 31 weeks with this little guy. The aches and pains that I feel with this little guy are not always fun and there are times that I walk around like an old lady. But I think so far we have been doing well. I am at 31 weeks and feeling okay! Two weeks ago I had to take the three-hour diabetes test, that was not so fun but I haven't heard any news from the doctor that is a concern but I'm sure I'll get the results this Thursday at my doctor appointment. I feel like this baby is VERY low and is putting extreme pressure on my sciatic nerve which makes walking not as fun and at times painful. But thankfully the weather is relatively cool and I use a heating pack to try to gain relief which helps for sure. But the kids and John are enjoying the baby movements. The kids are trying to come up with names for the baby and we have a couple of ideas of what the baby name will be but we wait till the baby arrives and then we usually have a good stare at the baby to see if the name we choose is a good fit for our little guy.

Happy Valentines Day! I hope that you guys are loved by the people who love you. Those loved ones could be dear sweet friends, family members, loved ones, spouses, children, etc. Our family has been wanting to go out to eat with daddy for a long time and we decided that instead of trying to do a romantic dinner with just mommy and daddy, we would just make it a family affair. So we went to the restaurant called the Park. The owner used to have a restaurant close to our house that we would go to so I was excited to see what the food would be like. John got ribs for his Valentines meal and I had spaghetti because my meal I really wanted wasn't there. The kids enjoyed fries, pizza, and chicken nuggets. After dinner, because Little M had finished all his homework for school we stopped at a park to play and have some fun. Happy Valentines Day everyone! Also, I tried to have N take a picture of John and I but unfortunately because it was so late and it was so dark -- the picture didn't turn out. It was really blurry because his hands weren't very steady and so we were just a big blurry mess. I'm a little sad I don't have a picture of John and I for Valentines Day, but I have the memories of a fast walk to get to the restaurant and our meal and our walk back.

As we were walking back to the house we saw a bridge that was made of glass and the kids had fun staring at themselves in it.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

We went with friends to Dahu, which is in Miaoli County. Basically, it seems like every little town has a special thing that they are known for. Well, Dahu is known for having strawberries and I guess oranges. Some of our friends took us to go strawberry picking. My kids were excited for the idea of strawberry picking but they were more excited about seeing one of their favorite people three days in a row. They were seeing her for the second time in the row today. My kids loved picking strawberries and I tried very hard to control them so they wouldn't pick so many that we would get into trouble. Sadly because of Chinese New Year and I think because it was still early in the season (even though it feels late in my mind) the strawberries that we kept looking at just weren't that good. We went over to another field and picked some other strawberries they were better but even those strawberries weren't the best. I just don't think they are quite in season. Thankfully we had fun and I think that's all that matters.

After picking strawberries we took a mountain road that was twisting and curving hoping to find a restaurant that my friends wanted to try. We couldn't get to the one restaurant but we went with option b which was a cute little restaurant that just was more like a cafe with sandwiches, waffles, and drinks. The kids wanted waffles so they shared two waffles and Little H shocked me as she ate 5 waffles. (they weren't huge waffles but it was still a lot of food.) Then they ran around with our friend. Little H declared that everyone was going to play tag well except for mommy because the baby might hurt mommy if she ran around. Then Little N made me laugh as he was shocked that one our friends could run so fast. N just looked at the guy and said in a surprised voice....I had no idea you could run that fast. We just laughed. The next funny moment that happened was when Little H went on to describe to one of our favorite friends how to play tag when all was being asked was are you sure you want me to chase you. It was amusing and I laughed. The best part of the day was that when we got home we brushed teeth and all three of the kids crashed. They were asleep by 7:45 pm which since we started vacation break has not been the norm.

Friday, February 3, 2017

While John is gone and while all the kids are home and it's not too crazy with school and routine, I decided to use up some of the tickets that I bought a LONG time ago when I was still having play dates with Little H's best friend. The tickets expire in July of this year and we still have a bunch of tickets. So we walked to Big City, had lunch (pizza and noodles) and then headed over to the play place. The strange but nice part of the play place is that it's all self-contained and there are tons of staff so parents can leave their kids there to play for 3 hours and run out to do errands...or if they want to go in the parents or adults have to spend some amount of money so that they can go in. Which I just think is a little bit silly but rules are rules. I guess most parents don't go in the play area with their kids and so it's just a way to make some money from the parents that do want to go in with their kids.

I did have some errands that I had to run - I was looking for some baskets for storage for the kids room - Little H's room I want to get a storage basket for her stuffed animals and the boys I want to get some storage baskets that they can put some of their favorite treasures there and have it organized under their bed. I also ran over to Daiso to see if I could find a container to store Little H's earrings and my earring so they were contained and didn't get lost. After my errands, I went back, checked on the kids and then sat down to color in my coloring book. It was kind of relaxing to color and not have to worry about the kids, because I knew they were having a blast. The kids never found me until I searched them out again then and that was a mistake because they didn't want to leave me and play. They just wanted to be near me and they were ready to be done. We made it about 2 1/2 hours before the kids wanted to be done and went out with one of the staff to find me. After they washed hands and went to the bathroom, we went downstairs and got some candy for our movie night and then walked back home. Glad that the kids were able to go out and play and have fun.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

John left early on February 1st to go on a mission trip to Thailand. Victory Church in Hsinchu has gone to southern Thailand on short term mission trips for a couple years now. This I believe is John's 3rd or 4th year going on the mission trip. This year we were supposed to all go as a family but then we found out that I was expecting and with Zika virus and the danger it poses for babies. So the kids and I are staying back in Taiwan while John goes to Thailand. Maybe next year we will get to go to Thailand. Hopefully, when John gets back from Thailand, I can take some of his pictures and show you some of the things that he did on the mission trip. You can pray for the team because John and another person are the only people who went from Victory English the rest of the team is from the Chinese side of Victory Hsinchu and Victory Jhubei church. So pray that there would be unity and that they would be able to work together as a team. I know that John will have a good time while he is there.

Before John left to go to Thailand he gave the kids some puzzles to do while they are home with me. The boys got a 520 piece puzzle. John started the process of the puzzle with the boys getting the edges of the puzzle put together and then the boys continued to work on the puzzle. Little M got frustrated with the idea of all the pieces and ended up destroying parts of the puzzle because of trying to figure out where stuff goes. But Little N loved working on the puzzle and finished the puzzle up today. He was so excited that he finished it and asked me to take a picture of him working and the finished puzzle for dad. While N worked on finishing the puzzle John had gotten, Little M pulled out two of the big puzzles that Grandma Olson had bought us over the years and completed them. Little M was proud of the fact that he finished his two puzzles and wanted pictures taken of his two puzzles.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

February is usually the month at least in the USA, that we think about love. So our bible verse for this month is a beautiful reminder that the ultimate love is God. God loves us and God is love! What a beautiful reminder and promise. This bible verse is an excellent verse to just meditate on.

Welcome to our blog! We try to keep this current for family and friends. We moved to Taiwan in February 2011 and are trying to keep in contact with loved ones through this blog. We love comments and will respond back if you have questions or comments!! Thanks for checking us out!!

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Family Bible Verse 2017

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. - Lamentations 3:22-23

Little N

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love. - I Corinthians 16:13-14

Little M

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. - I Timothy 4:12

Little H

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. - I Thessalonians 5:16-18

Baby S

I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. - Psalms 89:1